Eurogas Gets in Early With Views on EU Gas Market Future

Europe's gas lobby group Eurogas has published a discussion paper hoping to deflect the European Commission from pursuing a policy that will reduce the options available for gas. At the same time, it is keen for the market to dominate rather than interventions, even if that means closing down gas storage and other stranded assets not critical for security of supply.

The EC is planning to prepare a gas package to "address new opportunities and issues in relation to natural, decarbonised and renewable gas," Eurogas said October 22. 

Eurogas' secretary-general Beate Raabe stated: “Gas in its various shapes can make a real difference to addressing the challenges of the energy transition cost-effectively. A few key measures in the gas sector will complement and help implement the targets and objectives of the Clean Energy Package.”

The Eurogas discussion paper clusters around the pillars of a gas package outlined by the EC earlier this year: sector integration; renewable and decarbonised gas; and future gas market regulation.

It says that "numerous studies show that the 2050 decarbonisation targets can be reached most cost-effectively with an increasing share of renewable and decarbonised gas in a cost-efficient way. CO2-neutral gas has particularly strong advantages in enabling industry to decarbonise their energy-intensive heat processes: an important factor for reaching EU goals on climate and on industrial competitiveness".

The EC is expected to propose the creation of a distribution system operator (DSO), it says. If it does so, "there are several possible structures: there could be two completely separate entities for gas and for electricity, or two distinct work streams with separate boards, both housed in the same entity. Eurogas supports a separate entity for gas DSOs to ensure the adequate representation of gas DSOs and their interests and to ensure that the specificities of the gas sector can be addressed, rather than the same work areas being defined for both electricity and gas".